The present invention relates to a charger for charging rechargeable batteries, and especially for recharging rechargeable batteries in the form of a battery pack.
A rechargeable battery that allows charging and discharging is mounted to the charger and charged. Numerous types of rechargeable batteries are present on the market and each of them requires an exclusive charger to be charged. Therefore, it is necessary to impede the mounting of a rechargeable battery on a charger other than its exclusive charger.
The rechargeable battery discussed in the Japanese Patent Publication No. 5-12820 issued Feb. 19, 1993, is provided with a slot and a catch on the battery cartridge and also on the face mounting the battery cartridge, to only allow the mounting of the appropriate battery case. The slot and the catch connect by latching the appropriate battery cartridge mounted thereon so as to make an electrical connection. This structure does not allow the connection of an inappropriate battery cartridge because the slots and catches do not match.
Furthermore, with this type of charger it is necessary to pay attention to the orientation of the rechargeable battery on the charger to ensure that the battery is not inverted on the charger. That is, it is necessary to prevent inverted connection of the battery to the charger which would cause the positive and negative terminals of the rechargeable battery to be connected to the negative and positive terminals of the charger, respectively.
With regard to the necessity of preventing the inverted connection of the battery to the charger to avoid having the positive and negative battery terminals of the rechargeable battery connected to the negative and positive charging terminals of the charger, respectively, as can occur in use of the charger disclosed in the formerly mentioned publication, it is not sufficient to simply impede the mounting of the rechargeable battery to the charger. This is because, even if the rechargeable battery cannot be fully mounted to the charger, there is a possibility that the battery terminals can be connected to the charging terminals in an inverted manner.
Here, the present invention does not only prevent the abnormal connection of the rechargeable battery to the charger, but also impedes the connection of the battery terminals to the charger terminals in an inverted manner.
The above and further objects and features of the invention will be more fully apparent from the following detailed description taken together with the accompanying drawings.